And Life Goes On
by Destiny JoRayne Adams
Summary: AU.  Mike and Harvey are brothers and Harvey has to take care of Mike after their parents' car accident.  Written for a prompt on LJ.


A/N: Written for the following prompt on Livejournal: _I'm hankering for some Brothers AU. Where Mike is really Harvey's kid brother. When their parents died in the car crash and Mike survived, Harvey had to take care of him. It's up to you whether the fic is set in the past or in the present. It might be a total AU (where Harvey isn't a lawyer) or how much fun there could be if Mike was brought up by Harvey, then met Louis and Donna._

And since I love brothers, I just had to take a crack at it. Beta'd by Mam711. I did play a bit afterwards, so all mistakes are still mine. And of course, they're not mine. *sigh*

-000-

Harvey got the phone call at three A.M. Even before he answered the phone, he knew it was bad news. Why else would someone call that early in the morning?

"_I'm very sorry Mr. Specter, there was an accident. Your parents, sir, they didn't make it. Your brother is here at Midtown Hospital…"_

He skipped the _denial_ part of the grieving process; the horrible feeling in his gut couldn't mean anything else. His parents were dead, hit by a drunk driver. A sharp wave of grief threatened to consume him, but he viciously buried it down. Not now. Mike needed him.

He didn't know what kind of injuries Mike had, only that he was alive. The nurse who called him had probably said, but he hadn't heard. His mind was already racing about what would happened now, anything to distract him from the words 'they're dead!'that were pounding in his head. Mike was a minor, only sixteen and Harvey knew that he had just become his guardian. Harvey had no idea how he would take care of his brother, and the thought itself was so overwhelming that he just wanted to curl up somewhere and never come out.

But Mike needed him.

He arrived at the hospital and it took too long for him to be ushered into the room where his little brother lay on the bed, his face etched with grief even in his sleep.

Harvey didn't want to wake him, but he had to make sure he was okay. He took Mike's hand in his and felt for a pulse, his heart not slowing down until he felt the _thump-thump _of the beat inside his brother's wrist.

"Harvey?" The voice was whispered, and it was quickly followed by a sob.

"Mikey," Harvey breathed. It was an awkward position, but he didn't hesitate to lean across the bed and wrap his brother in his arms as he sobbed and hiccuped into his shoulder. Harvey could feel his own tears sliding down his face into Mike's hair as the two brothers mourned for a needless tragedy.

It didn't take long for Mike to fall into an exhausted sleep, his body demanding the rest. When Harvey was sure he was under and wouldn't wake up, he went to find the doctor.

"How is my brother?"

The doctor looked at him with pity, and Harvey had to resist the urge to punch him. He hated being pitied. "Your brother has escaped the accident with only minor injuries: a broken leg, a concussion and a dislocated shoulder. We would like to keep him here for a few days to monitor his head injury."

Harvey let out a breath in relief. Mike could have been a lot worse. He forced himself to ask the next question, because he knew he had to know. "And my parents?"

"They both died on impact." The pity in the doctor's expression was still there, but somehow Harvey couldn't bring himself to care any longer. "I'm sorry, Mr. Specter."

Harvey didn't bother answering, just headed back to Mike's room where he spent the rest of the night by his brother's bedside. He didn't get any sleep, even though he could never remember when he had been this tired.

He looked at Mike. His brother looked so weak and fragile lying in the bed and the thought of taking care of him scared Harvey more than anything. How would he afford to feed him? How would he make sure he got to school on time, and did his homework?

Harvey knew he wasn't ready for the responsibility, but he also knew he had no choice. The only alternative was that Mike was put in a foster home, and Harvey would do anything to make sure that didn't happen.

He pictured his parents the last time he saw them. It had been only a week ago, when he had been home for supper. It had been the four of them, laughing and teasing each other, having no idea that this would be the last time they ever would.

His parents, two of the most important people in his life, were dead. He would never see his mom's smile again; he would never smell her scent as she leaned down to kiss him on the head. He would never talk to his father about law and politics again. This time, he did nothing to stop the tears as they flowed down his face in unchecked grief.

It was the last time Harvey cried for a very long time.

-000-

The following weeks went by slowly.

The apartment which Harvey had moved into during his freshman year at college was only one bedroom, but Harvey figured that was probably a good thing since Mike had been plagued with nightmares since before he left the hospital. The kid refused to talk about them to anyone, not even to Harvey. The doctor had suggested a psychiatrist, but Mike would not hear of it, and Harvey didn't want to push him. So he made it very clear to Mike that whenever he wanted to talk, he was there and didn't push any further.

Before school started again in the fall, Harvey made sure that he rearranged his classes so that he could be out by the time that Mike got home. Money wasn't an issue at the moment; they had received a sizable inheritance that would keep them afloat at least until Mike graduated.

Both of them missed their parents, but Mike was the only one who talked about it. He would never talk about the accident at first, but instead talked through his memories. Harvey recognized it as an effort not to forget them, so he encouraged Mike to talk about them, and even though Harvey always listened when he did, he would never initiate the conversation. Eventually Mike did begin to talk about the accident, only in bits and pieces and though it hurt so bad to hear the details, Harvey listened to those too.

And life went on. Harvey was lulled into a sense of regularity. Every day was the same, and Harvey found comfort in that. Mike seemed to be doing better, as he adjusted into the routine, and Harvey hoped with every fiber of his being that he was going to be okay.

-000-

He may have met her in a library, but that didn't mean she wasn't hot. Her blonde hair was long and stylish and her clothing showed more skin than was completely necessary.

Her name was Alex Foster; she liked pie and cranberries and she was from Boston. She was the first serious girlfriend Harvey had had since high school. It took weeks for him to finally ask her out, and when she accepted, he felt like he was floating on a cloud.

When he got home, he found Mike at the kitchen table with his homework spread out in front of him. "Mikey, I found _her,_" he announced loudly, as he rustled his brother's hair.

"Who?" Mike asked distractedly, not even glancing up from the notebook in front of him.

"The one, Mike," Harvey replied. "I found _the one_."

"You met a girl," Mike said flatly, still not looking up.

"Not just any girl, Mike. Her name is Alex and she is _hot._"

"Uh-huh."

Harvey finally gave up and went to shower for his date. He stayed in the bathroom, armed with a comb and a blow dryer until Mike accused him of being a teenage girl and demanded he get out.

The night turned out perfect, better than Harvey ever would have imagined. He dropped her off at her house with a kiss, and waited until she was inside before he headed for home. He let himself in quietly, in case Mike was still asleep. He wasn't, but instead was sitting on in the living room, the TV set to a movie with a lot of explosions and cursing.

"You didn't have to wait up, you know," Harvey said as he threw his coat over a chair.

"I wanted to talk to you," Mike replied and turned the TV off.

Harvey eyed him for a minute, and then took a seat across from his brother, giving him his full attention. Despite Harvey's assurance that he would always listen, Mike very rarely sat down to have a talk with Harvey. "What's up?"

"I want to become a paramedic."

-000-

Harvey was immediately against it and he did everything he could to convince Mike that it was a bad idea. He didn't know where his kid brother had gotten such an idea, maybe it was some sense of misplaced guilt because of the accident. Whatever it was, Harvey didn't like it.

But Mike was determined. He took Certified First Responder training available at the local ambulance company, and began to take hours on call. When Harvey realized that he couldn't change Mike's mind, he made sure to limit the hours that Mike signed himself up for. During the school year, he was only on call on weekends and holidays. During the summer, it was more, but Harvey kept a close eye on him to make sure he wasn't burning himself out.

It didn't take long for Harvey to realize that Mike had found his true calling. He loved his job; the rush of adrenaline when he got a call, and being able to help people. And he was good at his job because when Mike put his mind to something, nothing could stop him.

-000-

Harvey dated Alex for two years. Unlike Harvey, she actually enjoyed studying-just like Mike-so Harvey ended up spending more time in the University library than he ever thought possible. He took her out several times a week and gave the date of her birthday and their first date to Mike so that he would remind him. His brother's memory still surprised him at times, even though he had lived with it his entire life.

Mike graduated from high school on the third Sunday in May. The day dawned bright and sunny and Harvey watched as Mike climbed the platform and received the diploma that he had worked so hard for. He had been working on the ambulance for almost a year and a half and was close to attaining his EMT-B, well on his way to get his Paramedic Certificate.

Harvey could rarely remember a time when he was more proud, but it was hard to keep the smile on his face. He kept thinking that his parents should have been there, sitting right beside him, cheering for Mike with the biggest smiles on their faces. Harvey kept an eye on Mike during the after-party and knew he was thinking the same thing. That night, Mike had his first nightmare in over nine months and he woke Harvey screaming for their parents.

Exactly three months and two days after his brother's graduation, he found texts on Alex's phone to her other boyfriend, one that she'd apparently been seeing for almost as long as she had been dating Harvey. He didn't even feel angry at first, just chucked her phone at her and walked out the door without looking back, ignoring her calls to come back.

It was a long time before he went home again, choosing instead to wander around the block where he lived. He knew that Mike was probably worried about him; he had told him that he would be home in time for supper, and that was hours ago. But he couldn't make himself go back and face Mike, to admit that he had made a terrible mistake and that he was a horrible judge of character.

In the end, he finally decided not to tell Mike. But despite his best efforts, it wasn't long before his little brother figured out that something was up. It took a few days, but finally Mike managed to corner Harvey in the kitchen as he was fixing breakfast for them.

"Where's Alex, Harv?" he asked, as he heaved himself up on the counter and let his legs dangle.

"Not here. Get off the counter," Harvey ordered as he grabbed some bacon from the fridge. He noticed that they were almost out of milk and made a mental note to pick some up.

His brother ignored his command, "She's been calling you for like two days, Harv, and you haven't answered the phone. You guys have an argument or something?"

"Or something. Seriously, Mikey, get off the counter; you're going to break it," he said, even though there was no way that Mike could break it even if he tried-the kid was friggin' skinny.

Mike huffed, but got down from the counter. He grabbed some eggs from the fridge and started frying them. They worked in silence for a while, Mike knowing that pushing Harvey would get him nowhere and Harvey not wanting to talk about it.

It wasn't until after breakfast that Harvey said anything. He knew that he couldn't keep it from Mike forever, and Mike really needed to know. "She was dating somebody else," and he refused to say anything else on the subject.

Harvey changed after Alex; Mike could see it. Before, he had always been quick to trust people, not overly so, but he would always give them the benefit of the doubt. After he found out that Alex was cheating on him, he began to view everybody he met with a certain air of distrust until they proved him wrong. He became more cynical and standoffish. It seemed that Mike was the only one that he would even look in the eye any more, and he felt strangely humbled by that.

Eventually, Harvey got through both college and law school and almost immediately got a job at Pearson Hardman, working alongside Jessica Pearson herself. It took him a while, but he eventually warmed up to Jessica, and Mike knew that it was because he was so much like her. It took longer for him to learn to share his big brother-because seriously, Jessica took more of Harv's time than Alex ever had-but eventually Mike adjusted.

Harvey began to move higher up at the firm, becoming a junior partner along with Louis Litt, a man who neither Mike nor Harvey was impressed with. He was a good attorney, but it seemed that he made it his life's mission to make Harvey's life miserable, and in so doing making Mike's evenings miserable when Harvey would come home in a bad mood. His receptionist was Donna, who Mike and Harvey both loved; they had a habit of competing against each other to buy Donna the better gift on special occasions.

Meanwhile, Mike got his Paramedic Certificate and continued to work at the same ambulance bay that he had been. It was in the neighborhood he had lived in since the accident and he enjoyed working with the people there.

And life went on.

-000-

They had done it every year since the accident like clockwork. Sometimes they came together, but most often they met together after school, or more recently, after Harvey got out of the office.

Mike remembered the first year after the accident. Harvey had first asked him about it, and when he had refused, his older brother had almost literally dragged him to the cemetery gates. It had continued that way for several years, Mike only coming because Harvey didn't give him much of a choice. But soon that had changed, and Mike had begun to come out here on his own, just to think, or maybe even talk to them a little.

They were meeting at dusk, and Mike had gotten there first. He had stopped to pick up some flowers on his way to the cemetery, and he laid them at the bottom of the headstone, taking care that they didn't cover the lettering.

There were times now when he went for extended periods without thinking of the, but other times he missed them so much it physically hurt. Random things would trigger memories of them, of the life they had shared together before the horrible calamity that had shattered all of that into a million little pieces.

He heard Harvey approach but he didn't bother to turn around. It wasn't long before Harvey's arm was slung over his shoulder and they both stood there, side by side silently looking at the grave.

It was well after dark before Harvey stepped forward and placed his own bouquet of flowers by Mike's. He turned and brushed his arm against his brother's. "Let's go home, Mikey."

_-2,775_


End file.
